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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Today while browsing on Pinterest I saw Liberty London's newly designed fabric for their autumn/winter collection and I find them all beautiful.

Their new collection was inspired by the poem "The Earthly Paradise" by William Morris. As an writer he was influenced by charm, color, sound, scenery, fragrance, and beauty of the visible world. This led the team from Liberty London to use their senses - sight, smell, hearing and taste to come up with new fabric designs.

"The design team was inspired by actress Tamsin Greig as well as other musical and dance performers to create the audio story collection.

Joshua Graham was created blindfolded, surrounded by pens, pencils, paint and pastels whilst listening to 'Music inspired by gardens'. The final design, drawn with chalk pastels, focused on the tempo and rhythm of 'Country Gardens' by composer Percy Grainger."

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Hi all! I'm so sorry for this late post. We've been quite busy in the office that's why I didn't have time to update my blog. But anyway, enough excuses. I'm going to share this famous cookie dough recipe by Cookie Monster. This recipe is found in the 1st volume of Sesame Street books. I have been using this recipe since I was 7 years old. And believe me, you can use it any way you want it. Cookie Monster has tons of ideas on how to use this cookie dough in the other volumes.

I thought of ways on how to personalize cookies so I did an experiment using my rubber stamps. It's easy to stamp on cookies with this kind of recipe since it holds its original shape and does not sink when you bake it.

This is a great gift idea if you want to leave notes or messages on your cookies. My niece loved reading all the words and also loved eating them.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Soften the butter and combine with sugar in a large mixing bowl until well blended. Beat the eggs separately and pour over mixture. Add vanilla and blend everything well together. Gradually add in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix well using a spatula or using your hands. Chill the dough for 1 hour.

After chilling, roll the dough to about 1/4" thick. Use a cookie cutter, or a drinking glass about 2-3" diameter to cut your dough. Chill them again for 15 minutes.

Clean your rubber stamps with warm soapy water. Dip each stamp in flour before using them. When your dough is firm enough, bring them out and stamp away. Bake in the oven at 350 F for 12 minutes.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Kristin McNeil of Mommypage interviewed me for their Mommypageturner. I'm not a mom and I'm not planning to become one anytime soon, but she asked me to share my favorite crafts for the home, tips on crafting, and where I get my inspiration.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Few days ago my friend told me about Meagan Cignoli's instagram videos that are very amusing. Meagan is a photographer who makes her own stop motion videos using her iPhone! Not only does she make interesting videos, her instagram photos are inspiring too.

She magically brings life to simple objects and I guess that's what makes her videos so unique and fun to watch. These are my favorite Instagram videos made by her:

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

A couple of weeks ago my friends and I had dinner at this new and hip restaurant in Shangri-la Plaza Mall called Spätzle Euro Market Cafe. It's a European restaurant, serving German/Austrian cuisine.

I'm not really a good food critic, but I can tell you about the design of the place. Everything was well thought of - the menu chalkboard, the wooden shelves with glass jars and cans for display, the cutlery stand, and they even made their very own hand sanitizer. They also had their geometric shelf customized inspired by Little Nuffield Cafe.

There were a lot of blacks and whites and greys matched with wood, which makes it warm and cozy. It may have a neutral color scheme, but it definitely isn't boring. The space has a quirky character with all the accessories they used. They placed midcentury modern furniture here and there like the Eames chairs and spindleback armchairs.

We saw details, details, and more details everywhere. Look up, and you'll see textured wallpaper on the ceiling and also wrapped around the column. Look down and there's the black and white geometric floor tiles (which I assume are custom made cement tiles). While you're waiting for the food you'll notice that some tables have laminate or sticker that looks like bare concrete. It's a pretty fun place to eat at, as there were so many things that distract your eye.

Overall I liked the look. It's one of the nice looking restaurants that I have seen in Manila. Based on the new European themed cafe, here's an inspiration board that I made. This style is perfect for the kitchen or dining area.

Monday, August 19, 2013

Hi all! I wasn't able to do any crafting for this week because I was on vacation with my family. Our family friend invited us to stay at Anvaya Cove in Morong, Bataan. It was such a beautiful place and so I'd like to share with you some photos of the house that we stayed in.

The house is one of the seaside villas in the resort, built on a high area overlooking the beach. The house had sliding glass doors on almost every side so the breeze and the natural light can pass through. And here's the fountain at the entrance of the house.

Above the dining area were huge hanging lamps made of wicker. And these were even more beautiful at night. Beside the dining area was the living room where all furniture were upholstered in white. It made the space light and airy.

There were books about tropical living and seaside homes everywhere in the house. And to stick to the coastal theme, the owner collected sea shells and placed them on a tray table.

Now here's the best part: the swimming pool with the nice view of the beach.

There were so many outdoor furniture to relax on, like this one

And the hammock

and this huge Dedon outdoor sofa.

with pebbles on the table

This is a shot of one of the four bedrooms. Joel, the housekeeper, made the swan towels by himself. I should have asked him to teach me how to make them. While we slept we were lullabied by the sound of the waves.

In front of the bed is the desk where you can work from your laptop or read a book.

And here's the bathroom with his and hers sinks.

Downstairs is a door with nice wood carving detail. I opened it and found out it was the pump room for the swimming pool.

Here's a closeup of the wood carving.

These were my photos of the house. I wanted to show you the kitchen, but I didn't have good photos of it. Anyway, that's where I was over the weekend. We had a wonderful quality time despite the rainy (or rather stormy) weather. I hope all of you enjoyed your weekend!

Friday, August 16, 2013

As you can see on my blog layout, you will probably notice that I love pink and grey together. Powder pink is so dainty and feminine, while the soft grey is neutral but sophisticated. This color combination is nice for a girl's bedroom.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

My two year old niece loves banana (thanks to the minions from Despicable Me). I have always loved banana with peanut butter, but unfortunately my poor niece is allergic to peanuts. So I'm glad some genius person invented the cookie butter, which my niece loves. So I made a simple and fun snack for her: Banana Cookie Butter Skewers!

Monday, August 12, 2013

We love to have cereal for breakfast. But what do we do with the cereal boxes when we have emptied them out? Do you throw them away or do you make them into something useful? Last weekend I transformed our empty cereal boxes into useful file holders.

You will need: your cereal box, of course. Since my cereal box is medium sized, I can fit receipts, folded paper, or letter sized documents in it. If you usually buy the big cereal boxes then I guess that's better. You can fit magazines with that size.

Draw lines using a pen or a marker. Make two dots, 3 inches from the bottom and 2.5 inches from the side. Then draw a diagonal line connecting the two dots that you just marked. Do the same on the other side of the box.

And then cut cut cut.

Now it's time to decorate! I just hot glued the fabric that I bought a long time ago during my hoarding days. You can also use gift wrapping paper or you can paint on the boxes. Here is the end product: (sorry my dog is such a photo bomber)

Welcome!

Hi! My name is Catherine, a crafty designer based in Manila who is passionate about art, loves to decorate, and explores her cooking abilities. This blog is where I post my creative output and good finds on the internet. :)